New On-water Towing Service at Smith Mountain Lake

Capt. Gary Jacobs, the owner of the new TowBoatUS Smith Mountain Lake, Va., fell in love with the lake when he vacationed there a while back. “It is gorgeous,” he said of the lake, which is in the Shenandoah Valley beneath the Blue Ridge Mountains. “One of the prettiest lakes I’ve ever seen.”

When he visited, Jacobs, who has been the owner/operator of TowBoatUS Lake Anna, Va., since 2010, was driving his own truck, which, he said, looks like a “rolling billboard for TowBoatUS.” A few local boaters asked him how they could get an on water assistance service on their lake. Fast forward a couple of years and TowBoatUS Smith Mountain Lake has been born. Jacobs and the licensed captains who work for him are now available 24/7 to lend a hand to any Smith Mountain Lake boaters who have a breakdown, run out of fuel, need a battery jumpstart or want help refloating their boat after a soft grounding.

Much like an auto club for boaters, TowBoatUS offers on the water towing plans for freshwater boaters and anglers for just $67 a year that includes BoatUS or BoatUS Angler membership. Without a towing plan, boaters face costs that average $600 per incident nationally.

Jacobs came to TowBoatUS in an unusual way.  His road service company, L & G Road Service in Stafford, Va., was one of the first to join the BoatUS Trailer Assist Program, which provides towing and roadside assistance to trailer boaters whose boat trailer or towing vehicle breaks down on the way to or from the boat ramp. The service costs just $14 a year in addition to BoatUS membership.

After that, adding the TowBoatUS on the water program was a logical next step. “I’ve spent my life on boats,” said Jacobs, a USCG-licensed captain and a certified volunteer firefighter who drives a fireboat on the Potomac River. “It ties into the work I’ve been doing all my life –helping stranded people on the road. Now, I can help people on the water, too. You have to treat every call like it was your own mother or father out there. I love being on the water, and it is great to be able to assist other boaters.”